Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

MTboatguy

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I have a normal wood stove and I am considering installing a Wood Pellet Basket in it, so I can just purchase and use wood pellets instead of the steady grind of cutting a splitting wood all summer long, I have been beat up enough and the older I get, the idea of hitting the local hardware store and picking up some pellets is starting to look very appealing, in addition to getting rid of the dirt and bugs that come along with split firewood, anybody have any experience with these..?

Pros? Cons?

I know I can get a ton of pellets for about $250 around here, which would last me a full burning season and if we wanted to buy a cord of wood(lasts 2 months) it would be close to the same price seasoned and delivered. My burning season runs from late Sept to Late May most years..

Thanks.
 

wifisher

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

Never used pellets, but how can a ton off pellets last all season if a cord only lasts 2 months? A cord of wood is a minimum of 2 tons. Usually more than that depending on what kind of wood. The pellets are made of wood, so they won't have a large difference in energy per pound. It just sounds like a salesman talking to me. Add to that the cost of the basket, and maybe it would be easier to just buy firewood?
 

Huron Angler

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

My grandpa-in-law loves his pellet burner. Big advantages: no splitting wood, or hauling wood, fire doesn't go out(auto feeder) and more consistent burn.

I think a pellet burner configured in a ceramic wood stove would be awfully efficient and cheaper than burning wood.
 

MTboatguy

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

No, it would not be easier to buy a cord of firewood, due to the dirt, the hauling, the splitting, etc. from my understanding, there is far less waste with the pellets, and far more efficiency.. Then compare the moisture content, a cord of wood on average is about 35% moisture content, and load of pellets is on average about 3-9% moisture content, so looking at actual product, with a cord of wood, your getting 65% burnable material, and with pellets your getting between 91-97% burnable material..

After stopping by the Fireplace shop I bought my stove from, they were telling me, on average, you get about 55% efficiency from a wood burning stove and about 89% efficiency from a pellet burner...

If it is really that much more efficient, then I would think that buying a 40lb bag of pellets would be worth the money..

The only reason I asked the question was to to see if anyone else had used one of these, and to be honest with you, I am tired of the splitting hauling and cutting as well as the dirt and grime in my house...I am starting to get old and crotchety...:D

By the way, a cord of wood is not a minimum of 2 tons, a cord of wood is 8 foot long by 4 foot high by 4 foot wide and can wildly vary in weight. Where I live a cord of wood normally is gauged based on volume, and our prevalent woods are fir, which weighs approximately a ton, now back east with hardwood being prevalent, you might get 2 tons in a cord of wood. it will also depend on how the wood is cut, how it is stacked, the airspace between pieces. etc.

A cord of wood can vary between 70 cubic feet to 90 cubic feet or more...
 

mommicked

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

MTboatguy,Ive seen advertisements for automatic pellet stoves and some that burned corn?Can you retrofit a wood stove to burn the pellets,or do you just toss them in and burn them?I dont know much about the pellets.Id be curious to know how they compare to hardwood for heat produced and do they have less ash than wood?If it was automatic i guess it could burn for days? once the draft was adjusted?that would be neat.When I was younger I used to enjoy cutting,splitting and burning wood to lower our heating bills and it helped a great deal w that,Oak and Hickory.Not so much fun anymore(see crotchety).But you cant beat a woodstove for comfort especially after a long cold day outside!For 6 yrs. we've had vented propane logs;came w new old house.Even w a blower not alot of heat.The gas logs are about shot and I told the misses we're gettin a woodstove to put in the brick fireplace.I told her Im gonna put a low door beside the fireplace and build a nice cabinet over It that I can fill w wood from outside the house.That should eliminate alot of the dirt,bugs,bark,from carrying Wood in the side/back door.Now shes trying to think of another reason we cant use wood again!But this winter has softened her up to the woodstove Vs her "replacing the propane logs controversy! update; googled it and baskets are cheaper than the pellet stoves,and you can pull out the basket and put wood in anytime. $319 a ton in 40 lb.bags here. saw 40lbs burns for 5-6 hours.Looks like rabbit food!!
 
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rbh

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

HEY, Dave-
OK then I will try and split this into two themes wood burning and pellet burning.

First off-"WOOD", Your best bang for the BUCK is a hard wood, I prefer birch what is easily available here, them larch, then the fir,pine family, and I try to stay away from popular, aspen, cottenwood, all soft woods
(all wood should be split and dried for 6 months minumum to avoide creosote)

Pellet Stove are great and convinient, but they require power, If your power goes out you need a backup.

If I was going to plan the build for a new heat source for our place now it would be a boiler system. multi fuel, IE elec, diesel, wood ETC.

Just my 02c
 

j_martin

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

Coupla things here.

1. A pellet stove will be more efficient than a wood stove for 2 reasons.
.....a. The fuel is drier. Moisture not only reduces the amount of fuel, but requires fuel to evaporate it. Anything above 20%, which is pretty dry for outdoor stored wood, is significant.
.....b. A pellet stove would have more flue length and surface area than an equivalent stick stove. It can cool the smoke down more without creosote build up. See (a)

2. The best way to burn pellets is either an augered drop system like most pellet stoves, or a wind box stoker, which is what we used to use in full sized furnaces on up to commercial boilers. A wind box stoker will also efficiently burn lignite coal.

3. A cord of dry oak, one of the heaviest woods, will weigh about 3000 lbs. Aspen will weigh about 2000 lbs. Either will weigh twice as much if wet.

I find the lighter woods will usually form more volume of a lighter ash. Hard maple or iron wood will sometimes actually clinker the ash. (fuse it into rocks.)

hope it helps
john
 

PiratePast40

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

We burn pellets but not sure how efficient it would be without the feed and air systems. If you don't have the combustion air flow and feed rate tuned, it gets pretty dirty and inefficient.

As far as the power issue, the 3 or 4 days a year that we're without power, a small generator works great to keep the pellet stove, TV, and a few lights running.
 

MTboatguy

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

I am talking about a wood pellet basket to use a regular wood burning stove with wood pellets, I have a complete air circulation system on my wood stove so air flow is no problem, as far as power, that is not a problem either, we have a full house generator system hooked up to handle the power outages so not a concern, in addition, we also have a solar system with the storage capacity to handle the house for at least a day.

This is one of the items I was looking at:

http://www.thepelleteer.com/

There is another that I was looking at, but their website is not working right now, but they sell them on ebay as well.

http://cgi.ebay.com/Pellet-Basket-B...194?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item230e5971b2

Of course either design I can build as I have a full shop with all of the tools needed..

I was just wondering if anyone had any experience with using one.

Good quality hard wood is not easy to find around this area and every expensive if you do, if you run out of wood in the winter, you are pretty much screwed because your not going to find any seasoned wood and getting it delivered to my house in the winter!!! Not going to happen! I currently have a full cord of wood outside, but with the snows we have had, it is not accessible. Which is one of the reasons I have started to look at alternatives.. It would be a lot easier to go to the hardware store and just pick up a couple of bags of pellets, now take into account, our wood stove does not go 24 hours a day, we keep it about 65 in the house most of the time with electric, which only runs us about $90-$100 per month..

Thanks.
 

mommicked

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

Mtboatguy,I did find some pellet stove/basket reviews at Thrifty Fun .com.didnt read them all but saw several saying you need the auger or slow feed to get good efficiency or something.Maybe you could buy one bag and try it out w a homade basket or some wire mesh on some bricks?evidently the pellets can vary in size from rabbit food to larger pellets.the smaller looks like it would fall thru the baskets ive seen.
 

Bob_VT

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

I might be late on this but..... I do NOT believe the basket advertising. Heat up to 35K BTU is lower than you will care for. Pellet stoves and furnaces are popular here and they require some significant cleaning due to the amount of use. I would NOT go that route but I would consider a true pellet stove.

Bondo just got his outside (home designed) wood boiler going and he has an excess of heat. You should talk with him since we experience similar temperature changes.
 

Bondo

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

I might be late on this but..... I do NOT believe the basket advertising. Heat up to 35K BTU is lower than you will care for. Pellet stoves and furnaces are popular here and they require some significant cleaning due to the amount of use. I would NOT go that route but I would consider a true pellet stove.

Bondo just got his outside (home designed) wood boiler going and he has an excess of heat. You should talk with him since we experience similar temperature changes.

Ayuh,... Probably apples, 'n oranges 'tween my boiler, 'n a pellet stove...
But,...
"or a wind box stoker," This interests me, as I'm hoping to convert my boiler from chunk wood, to burn wood Chips...
I delayed putting this boiler into service for a year, because I cut in a Feed Tube, for up grading to burning Chips someday..

So far, this winter has been a Dream,...
70?, instead of 66/68? when on oil...
I used to burn between $4,000. to $5,000. a year in Oil...
So far, I haven't burnt a drop since christmas...
Ya, I'm Lovin' it....;)

As for the Topic,...
I'd think with all the extra surface area of the pellets in that basket,...
The pellets would burn up Quicker than chunk wood...
 

j_martin

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

A wind box stoker has a cast iron ring almost like an old gas burner, with slots for air. Fuel feeds up from the middle. Usually there's a rotating ring around the outside of the wind box to break off the ash. I've used them on everything from 80,000 BTU home furnaces to a 700,000 BTU district boiler heating several buildings. Usually they were rigged to a sloping floor bin that takes truckloads of fuel.

Back in the 80's, there was also a burner called a walking grate burner to burn wet hog fuel. Used them at sawmills. They'd burn whatever woody trash was laying around, in it.
 

Bondo

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

A wind box stoker has a cast iron ring almost like an old gas burner, with slots for air. Fuel feeds up from the middle. Usually there's a rotating ring around the outside of the wind box to break off the ash. I've used them on everything from 80,000 BTU home furnaces to a 700,000 BTU district boiler heating several buildings. Usually they were rigged to a sloping floor bin that takes truckloads of fuel.

Back in the 80's, there was also a burner called a walking grate burner to burn wet hog fuel. Used them at sawmills. They'd burn whatever woody trash was laying around, in it.

Ayuh,... Thanks J,... I've been googlin' since I posted that,...

learned Alot....;)
 

MTboatguy

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

Bondo,

Is there a website I could get plans for a boiler like you installed? Like I said, I am looking at alternatives, and from what you have posted it sounds like this could be a viable one.

Thanks.
 

gss036

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

I burnt wood for 40+ years and burned out to Kent inserts. Since I am getting too old for wood cutting now and to buy it is around $200.00 cord here now. I went to a gas insert in my fire place to bw able to enjoy the flame. We have a high efficent furnace which is probably cheaper. There used to be a lot of gypo loggers selling log truck loads of trees but the to are harder to find and price went from $ 250 to750/800 for 8-9 cord loads. No regrets about going to gas.
 

MTboatguy

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

gss036, I would not mind gas, but it is not available where I live and the cost of propane as well as transpo makes it cost prohibitive, they won't even put a tank at my house that is less than 500 gallons and they won't deliver in the winter, so if you run out, your out of luck until spring gets here and the snow melts...LOL
 

Bob_VT

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

I do know that the outside wood boiler's will burn darn near ANYTHING...... pine, tires, trash (did I say that LOL :D) I know my neighbor burns hemlock and any trashwood that is available.
 

Bondo

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

Bondo,

Is there a website I could get plans for a boiler like you installed? Like I said, I am looking at alternatives, and from what you have posted it sounds like this could be a viable one.

Thanks.

Ayuh,.... Google,... ;)

I spent days, 'n days searchin', 'n studyin' to come up with what I designed...
That 'n whatever I could find in dumpsters dictated the final design...

In yer googlin', you'll come accross several forums about burning wood,...
The 1 with the most traffic has alota good info,...
But I find the owner/ webmaster to be somebody I Refuse to be assocated with,...
So,... You'll have to figure it out, as I refuse to advocate His website,...
I even went through, 'n deleted every post I ever made on his website...
Sorry 'bout that....

Basically,... Ya build a firebox, Inside a waterjacket,...
Here's a couple pictures of my monstrosity,...
(havin' 'puter problems, will post pictures later)

Btw,... My only mistake was building it for chunk wood, up-draft, rather than as a woodgas downdraft...
The gasifiers are abit more efficent, 'n smoke less...
 

perchin

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Re: Anybody ever use a Wood Pellet Basket...?

We use a pellet stove as our primary heat source in the winter.... and we are on our 5th ton this winter. Only 1 ton for the year:confused: I'm assuming your just getting something as supplemental heat? Either that or it stays in the 60's in the winter where you are.

Those baskets BTW are a serious joke.

PS... its always funny to listen to folks inform everyone about what they don't really know... like how you have to clean them like crazy...lol the most maintenance mine requires is filling it once a week, and a 5 minute cleaning once every two weeks....oh yeah, and I store mine in the basement, so no going out in the cold, or even outside for that matter.:D

Oh yeah... and all of the components are DC...so you can build an easy battery back-up for when the power goes out.
 
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